Surprise! Iraq Is A Security Nightmare!

Bush administration officials make another 'surprise' visit to Iraq...

AP: Rumsfeld, Rice Make Surprise Trip to Iraq

In their first visit together to Baghdad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with leaders of Iraq's emerging government as the top U.S. military commander said some American troops may be able to leave in the next few months.

Thesurprise visit by President Bush's top national security officials was a dramatic show of support for Jawad al-Maliki, the Shiite selected to be prime minister, in a development the United States hailed as evidence of substantial progress...

(bold added by moi)

Why the hell does the media keep reporting these visits as a 'surprise'? Every time a Bush administration official makes an unannounced, secret trip to Iraq, the media hails it as a 'surprise', as if the officials simply wanted to add a little fun to their trip by making a 'surprise' treat for the Iraqi government and people. I did a Google search and found numerous stories from the past few years all heralding these 'surprise' visits.

The elephant in the room (pardon the pun) that the media ignores every time is that these trips are only a 'surprise' because they have to be. If the trip was announced in advance, it would require extra security preparations to combat the extra violence and planned attacks that would surely await them upon arrival. The security situation in Iraq is a nightmare, the country is awash in violence, and the White House likely isn't sure which members of the Iraqi government can be trusted with advance knowledge of Bush administration travel plans. And so our country's leaders must travel in and out of Iraq in secret to speak with Iraqi leaders inside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Of course, the White House doesn't want their visits to the country seen in that light because that reality would underscore their insistence that everything is going really well there and that any reports of civil war and chaos are simply media lies. So they spin their visits as a 'surprise' and the same media that they accuse of undermining the war effort happily plays along. Three years in, they really need to stop falling for that line. Call a spade a spade... The situation in Iraq is disastrous and it is not a place that American officials can safely journey to in its current state.

The real surprise will be a day when Iraq is safe enough to visit openly and without military protection.

[PS- Arianna Huffington debunks the conventional wisdom surrounding the Iraq debate:
Iraq: A Handy Rebuttal to the "We Have to Finish the Job" Conventional Wisdom ]

[PPS- Perhaps if the President likes surprises, he can shock New Orleans by actually fulfilling the many Roosevelt-esque promises on reconstruction he made back in September. Now that would be a very pleasant surprise for all.]